Optimus Prime (TF2017)
Optimus Prime from The Transformers (2017 TV Series). Bio Optimus Prime is the awe-inspiring leader of the Autobot forces. Selfless and endlessly courageous, he is the complete opposite of his mortal enemy Megatron. Originally a mere civilian, he was chosen by the Matrix to command, the first in a number of heavy burdens he has been forced to bear. Another is his bringing of the Transformers' conflict to Earth. Every casualty, human or Cybertronian, weighs heavily on his spark. He does not show this side to his soldiers, and he never succumbs to despair. The Autobots need a decisive, charismatic leader, and that is what he gives them. It was that leadership which turned the tide of the Great War. On the battlefield, there are few who rival Optimus Prime's prowess. He is easily the strongest of any Autobot his size, and his ion blaster and his energon-axe are deadly weapons. He would sacrifice his life to protect his fellow Autobots or those under their care, and does so on a regular basis. His compassion for other sentient beings is his only real weakness, and one the Decepticons have taken advantage of time and again... though it's also the source of his strength! Prime carries within him the Creation Matrix. His robot mode split into three components: *A sentient robot module, the Brain Center. *A wheeled drone module known as Roller. *A Combat Drone Although Optimus Prime can function as three independent modules, injury to any one module is felt by the other two. History Arc 1 As a general, Optimus proved to be the only one capable of rallying the rag-tag forces into a proper army. After over a thousand years of war, Cybertron — shaken from its orbit and drifting through space—came under threat when it floated into the path of a massive asteroid swarm that could potentially devastate the planet. Prime led a group of his most powerful Autobot warriors on the Autobot starship, the Ark, on a mission to destroy the asteroids. Although the Autobots were successful, in the aftermath of this mission the Ark was attacked by Decepticon warship Nemesis, hoping to overcome their weakened foes. The resulting fight lead the Ark to crash onto the nearby planet Earth. After lying dormant for four million years, the Ark was awakened by the eruption of Mount St. Hilary in 1984, and Optimus Prime was rebuilt so that he could reconfigure his body into a semi-truck. As the Decepticons fled, Optimus Prime called for a roll call of his own troops. Suspecting that after all this time, Cybertron probably no longer existed, Optimus Prime began studying the planet upon which they had landed; he was startled to realize that this planet did have sentient life! He swore that the Autobots would hide themselves from Earth's natives, so that they would be spared the horrors of the Transformers' war. |The Beginning| Optimus Prime and the other Autobots were all dangerously low on fuel, but thankfully Bumblebee had befriended some humans who could help — Irving "Sparkplug" Witwicky and his son, Buster Witwicky. Leading the Autobots to Sparkplug's auto shop, Optimus Prime introduced himself to the humans. Unfortunately, the Decepticons had the same idea, and the warring factions met in battle. But while Prime was busy shooting Decepticons out of the air, Megatron grabbed Sparkplug, and so Prime was forced to face his nemesis one-on-one. Despite Prime's apparent victory, Sparkplug was snatched away by Starscream, and the Decepticons retreated. Optimus Prime acknowledged Buster's sorrow at the kidnapping of his father, but noted that without fuel, retrieving him would be impossible. |Power Play| Carrying Sideswipe and Hound in his trailer, Optimus Prime and the other Autobots returned to the Ark, where Ratchet awaited. Optimus and a handful of his soldiers were refueled, and left to confront the Decepticons at their cliffside fortress. With the mysterious Spider-Man's help, Sparkplug was rescued, but not before Sparkplug had converted fuel for the Decepticons! |Prisoner of War| Unfortunately, Optimus Prime couldn't stop the Autobots from overreacting to this bad news, and their actions caused Sparkplug Witwicky to suffer a heart attack. |The Last Stand| When the Ark alerted Optimus Prime of a power surge at Sherman Dam, he and his Autobots weren't surprised to find the Decepticons behind it. Afraid of the dam crumbling under the stress of the Decepticons' manipulations, he faced off against Megatron on the top of the dam, brandishing his energy ax. As he trash-talked Megatron, Prime was suddenly distracted by Hound's defeat. Megatron used this moment to his advantage, knocking Prime off the dam and firing his cannon into the dam itself. Prime quickly assembled his troops, directing them to divert the waves by digging trenches and elevating the neighboring humans. Mirage was angered when the humans still vilified them, despite their hard work, but Prime calmed him. |Decepticon Dam-Busters| Huffer alerted Optimus Prime to information that Ratchet had uncovered from the Ark's databanks: millions of years ago, the Dinobots battled Shockwave to a standstill. This raised some questions, but there was little Optimus Prime could do with this knowledge now. With a Decepticon attack imminent, and the Autobots dangerously low on fuel, Optimus Prime had a desperate gamble. Using the Tubes of Transference, the combined remaining fuel was compiled into five of the strongest Autobots, himself, Ironhide, Huffer, Bluestreak, and Mirage. Sure enough, the Decepticons descended quickly upon them, but even though Prime was still low on fuel, he was still quick enough to grab Starscream out of the air! It was not enough to defeat Megatron, however, and his nemesis hoisted Prime's body over his head in complete victory. ...That is, until Megatron and the other Decepticons doubled over in pain. Sparkplug had poisoned the Decepticons' fuel! Unfortunately, Optimus Prime's subsequent speech was short as he and the other Autobots were blasted into pieces. Shockwave had awakened and returned. |The Last Stand| Though the Decepticons had taken over the Ark, Ratchet was able to sneak Buster Witwicky inside, and the young human was startled to find Optimus Prime's decapitated head attached to machinery. |The New Order| Optimus Prime, in this weakened state, pleaded with Buster to detach two power cords and attach them to either side of the human's head. This released a tremendous amount of energy, transferring Optimus Prime's Creation Matrix to the human, and Buster blacked out. After Buster awoke, he returned to Ratchet to tell him of Optimus Prime's defeat. |The Worst of Two Evils| Ratchet had to see this for himself, and he was saddened to find out that Buster was correct. The Autobots were defeated, even including the mighty Optimus Prime! But Optimus would not let Ratchet give up or despair. He pushed Ratchet to action, telling him that even though Ratchet was nothing more than a doctor, now was the time for him to learn to be a warrior. |Warrior School| Since Shockwave's return, he had wrested leadership of the Decepticons from Megatron, and so the former Decepticon leader was ordered by Shockwave to prepare to move Optimus Prime's head from the Ark to the Decepticons' base of operations within Blackrock Aerospace Assembly Plant Number One. |Repeat Performance| Shockwave planned to use the Creation Matrix energies within Optimus Prime's head to give life to a new Decepticon army, despite Optimus Prime's obvious objections. Shockwave didn't know that he had transferred most of the energy to Buster Witwicky, so Optimus Prime took quiet solace in the fact that the last of his remaining energies would be used on only six new warriors. |The Wrath of Guardian| |DIS-Integrated Circuits| Meanwhile back at the Ark, Ratchet and Wheeljack remotely controlled Prime's headless body to prevent Grimlock from setting off Guardian's nuclear arsenal. |The Wrath of Grimlock| Optimus Prime's head watched helplessly as Shockwave brought his Constructicons to life using the rest of Prime's stored Creation Matrix energies. But Shockwave realized something was wrong when Prime failed to give life to his next creation, Jetfire. |The Next Best Thing to Being There| Shockwave deduced what had happened, and so he sent Jetfire (who was still little more than a drone) out to capture Buster. Optimus Prime realized he had put Buster in tremendous danger, but thankfully Buster prevailed in thwarting his would-be-captors through applied use of the Creation Matrix on them. However, with the Matrix energy within Prime spent, the Autobot leader was useless to Shockwave, and so the Decepticon made plans to dispose of the head. |Brainstorm| In actuality, the head Shockwave disposed of was an impostor. Shockwave had learned that his headquarters were bugged, and so when the Autobots came to retrieve the head from a nearby swamp, the impostor head took control of Prime's body and turned on the Autobots. The day was saved only by the efforts of Buster, who was able to wrest control of Jetfire so that he could deliver the real head to its body. Once again whole, Prime retaliated against the Decepticons battling at the swamp, and one by one, they were destroyed. Shockwave himself arrived to battle Prime, but after they grappled, Shockwave was thrown into the swamps and disappeared. Instead of delivering a final blow, Optimus Prime rushed back to the plant to assure Buster's safety. The nightmare over, Prime transferred the Creation Matrix energies from Buster back into himself. |Prime Time| Post Arc 1 Optimus Prime questioned his ability to lead after his recent series of trials when a fight broke out amongst the Autobots on whether to use the Creation Matrix to create an army of unstoppable robot monsters. His introspection was interrupted by the intrusion of Ravage. The spy was captured, but it was not known by the Autobots that this was part of a larger Decepticon plot. Ravage escaped easily, and when Bumblebee gave chase, the Autobot was captured by the Decepticons. His disembodied arm was dropped in front of the Ark by Laserbeak, a gauntlet cast. Prime decided to go alone to Decepticon headquarters to rescue Bumblebee, despite the other Autobots' objections. Indeed, Prime bested the Decepticons one-by-one, felling them all, until he arrived, heavily damaged, in the chamber where Bumblebee was held. After making short work of Soundwave, Optimus Prime returned to the Autobots, determined to do things right from then on. |Crisis of Command| Afterwards, Optimus Prime sent a team of Autobots to investigate the Man of Iron, a local legend in the United Kingdom. After befriending Sammy Harker, and tangling with the Decepticons over the remains of the Man of Iron's ship, Optimus Prime and Jazz were forced to destroy the ship, its inhabitants already dead. |Man of Iron| Back at the Ark, after Brawn suffered a psychotic break and ran off, Optimus Prime ordered the Autobots to hunt him down before he could harm any humans! After Brawn was cornered, he threatened the Autobots with death, but was quickly overwhelmed, and Optimus Prime carried Brawn's defeated body back to the Ark. Another electrical shock returned Brawn to his senes, but in order to prove Brawn's loyalty, a Trial by Combat was orchestrated between him and the traitorous Decepticon, Starscream. With the help of Mirage's holograms, Brawn's death was faked once he had proved himself, and the two factions returned to their respective bases. |The Enemy Within| The Decepticons did not stay there for long, and suddenly a full-scale attack was launched on the Ark! Mid-clash, the Ark's computer systems, "Aunty", went berserk, and it fell to Optimus and Megatron to team up against the malfunctioning program to save both armies. Megatron used his ability to tap into the power of a black hole, in a bid to free them, only for Ravage and Windcharger to burst in and destroy Aunty themselves. Seeing little reason to put the cosmic energies he had gathered to waste, Megatron turned to finish off Optimus Prime. Thankfully, Windcharge used his magnetic abilities to propel Megatron from the Ark, and the rest of the Decepticons retreated in the absence of their leader. |Raiders of the Last Ark| Trivia *Peter Cullen reprises his role as Optimus Prime. Changes *The Nemesis was never named in the original comic or cartoon, only retroactively given the name from Beast Wars: Transformers. *Unlike in the original cartoon, in the original Marvel comic (from which the show was adapted from its UK version): Prime deliberately set the Ark on a suicide course to crash onto Earth, fearing the secrets the Ark's computer Auntie falling into Decepticon hands. It was changed to a regular crash in the 2017 series on the grounds this was a stupid decision. *The Man of Iron's ship's crew were unaccounted for in the original comic. This was changed due to the fact that this is uncharacteristically cold-hearted of Prime considering the comic's circumstances. 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